


Hinata Names All of the Cats

by ceilingfan5



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Animal Shelter AU, Cats, Fluff, Humor, LITERALLY, M/M, Tooth Rotting Fluff, and the start of a possible adorable relationship, falling for you, its cats and fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-07
Updated: 2016-02-07
Packaged: 2018-05-18 18:06:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5937940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ceilingfan5/pseuds/ceilingfan5
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An "I work at the animal shelter and you always come in to pet the cats when you’re sad" au with aohina. Fluffy and a little romantic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hinata Names All of the Cats

**Author's Note:**

> Sometimes you just have to take matters into your own hands. Where is all of the aohina?? They're ADORABLE. This fic was also an excuse to make up cat names that made me giggle, just saying. 
> 
> Comments are super appreciated! They boost my mood and make me want to keep writing! Tell me what you think, even if it feels silly. Getting "you got a comment on ____" emails from ao3 always make my day.

“You come here a lot, dontcha?” Hinata smiled as bravely as he could at the enormous bleach-blonde regular, who just so happened to be the only other person still in the animal shelter. The others didn’t usually go home so early, but they were short-staffed and hadn’t been getting a lot of adoptions lately anyway, so Hinata had been happy to close for the night. Feeding the animals, a little bit of cleaning, and locking the doors he had expected. A customer right before closing time was something of a surprise. 

The tall man straightened up for a moment, then bowed in apology. The seriousness of his expression contrasted ridiculously with the kittens (Professor Muffins and Sgt. Bundt cake, respectively) struggling to climb him like a mountain. Hinata found himself scarily aware of how small they probably felt, but he was lonely, and bored, and the guy couldn’t be that bad if Patisserie, the mother of the kittens, had allowed them that far out of her sight. 

“I mean,” he forged valiantly on, “They seem to recognize you, and I feel like I’ve seen your car before.”

The man hesitated for a second and then nodded. Hinata kicked himself inwardly for starting a conversation with a guy who looked and talked like a tree when he could have been locking up for the night or playing games on his phone. But his habit for seeing things through, whether they were good ideas or terrible ones, pushed him forward, and his mouth moved on without his brain. 

“Are you looking to get a cat? You might really like an older cat. They’re really pleasant and gentle, and they won’t ruin your stuff, which makes them good for apartments. Not that kittens aren’t great! These little guys are awesome. It’s just more work, even though they look like they would be less, you know? Totally high-maintenance!” He laughed awkwardly at his own poor attempt at humor, and was surprised to see a little tiny smile breaking through on the mountain man’s face. Jackpot! 

“So, should I show you some of our other cats? We’ve actually got a great deal going on right now where we pay for their vaccinations and stuff, so it hardly costs anything to get a new friend!” He grinned and gestured to the cat room, but the smile disappeared and the tree went nowhere.

“Can’t.” He shook his head. Hinata frowned.

“Well, why not? They’re on sale! I mean, as much as a living thing can be on sale, which is kind of weird, I guess? But they’re like the price of a good dinner!” He gulped and waved his hands around, suddenly nervous about what a giant like that might feed on in his spare time. “N-n-not that you ought to eat one! Please don’t eat them!”

The tiny smile returned again, but it almost seemed...sad, somehow. 

“No cats allowed in my apartment.” He scratched behind the Sarge’s ears and watched quietly as Butter began to climb his leg. “I’m just visiting.” 

“Oh,” Hinata sighed, instantly relieved. He picked up Roly-Poly-Angelina-Jolie to keep her out of trouble and leaned against the counter. “That’s really sad! At least you can come see them here, I guess.”

The mountain nodded, and Hinata’s face grew warm with the embarrassing notion that he’d been calling a customer something so disrespectful in his head the whole time. Especially since the guy seemed way nicer than scary once he’d started talking to him. Even if Hinata had to strain his neck just to look at his face.

“Ah- um-” He held onto the kitten for courage, even as she tried tried to chew on his apron strings. “What’s your name, sir? Oh-I’m Hinata, by the way!” He pointed at his name tag for emphasis and, a little bit too late, wondered if it was embarrassing to have quite so many stickers on it.

The man hesitated for a moment, maybe because Professor Muffins nearly slid off of his truly massive shoulders, or maybe because he was just shy.

“Aone.”

“Aone? That’s a really cool name!”

He saw a flash of that tiny smile again, and some small, deep part of Hinata wanted to make him really smile, all the way. Probably just because it was a challenge, and not because it made his heart feel funny.

“Aone-san, would you like to do me a favor?” 

Tiny nod.

“Great!” Hinata grinned. “Can you keep the cats together while I clean the cat room?”

Maybe it was a trick of the light (or his height), but Hinata could have sworn he saw Aone’s eyes flash in excitement. 

Cleaning the cat room was always a two-person minimum job when there were a lot of strays in the shelter. Some of the top escape artists in the area made their homes there, among the elderly, the screamy, the acrobatic, the touchy-feely, the danger-savvy, and some of the grouchiest grumps in the prefecture. Hinata had intended to save it for the next morning when he’d have more coworkers and maybe even volunteers to help, but with this guy’s height and feline affinity, they just might be able to do it by themselves. Probably. 

Hinata unlocked the cat room door and ushered Aone in, locking it quickly behind them. He got the broom and the cat litter and the fresh newspaper as he rattled off instructions to his new friend.

“You gotta keep them out of the kennels so I can change the litter and stuff! There’s treats in the cabinet over there. Try not to let them climb? They’re really hard to get down, Cowboy especially. Dustmop and Fuzzbucket always try to get behind that shelf over there and it’s almost impossible to get them back! And then they have the guts to yowl about it! Although, with arms like yours, I guess it wouldn’t be that hard. You’re so tall-” Hinata laughed and tugged at his collar before dragging a new bag of cat food into easy reach. “I mean, um. Try to distract them? Go ahead and play with them. Papa Purrito and Crap Weasel really like the feather toy, but Crunchwrap Supreme is more of a catnip girl.” With each successive name, he pointed out the cat it belonged to. Some the giant recognized, but at others, he ducked his head down to hide a little smile. God, what a smile. 

“So, are you ready to release the danger?” Hinata turned to grin at him, dusting cat litter off of his apron. Aone nodded once, serious and intense, and Hinata couldn’t help but feel like they were running some kind of military operation instead of cleaning up an animal shelter. Operation furball. 

With a tug of the red string they’d connected to all of the locks for ease of access, the cats were released. Furry hellions spilled out of the metal kennels like a fifth biblical plague and the floor immediately swarmed with cats ready to run as far as possible and get into as much trouble as they could along the way. Hinata took the chance and started pulling litter boxes and newspaper as fast as possible. This wasn’t his first deployment. Aone, however, was instantly covered in kitties, some climbing him like the kittens had and others rubbing and bumping against his legs, vying for attention. He tried to sprinkle treats into the crowd, but they weren’t satisfied, and when he went for the toy cabinet, his defenses were overwhelmed and, with a loud SLAM that rattled the windows, he landed flat on his back. No cats were harmed in the felling of that tree, but immediately cats of various states of hunger or possessive agitation canvassed his enormous body.

Hinata was sure he’d just landed the shelter a lawsuit they couldn’t afford when he heard a sound even stranger than Cricket’s chirpy yowling or a thirty-cat tornado. It started low and choppy, but it raised in pitch and grew more comfortable, as if it was the first time in a long time that it had happened. Aone was laughing. And he was laughing hard. 

Before long, both men had tears streaming down their faces. Hinata doubled over, spilling cat food, and finally Aone lost his fur coat enough to sit up. Aone’s smile was just the kind of shiny and beautiful Hinata had expected, and he found himself almost dazzled. 

“Are you okay?” he choked out, finally able to get enough air into his lungs to push more than giggles out. Aone just nodded, still smiling, and it took all of Hinata’s willpower to help him off the floor instead of staring at him forever. He was even prettier when his face didn’t disappear into the stratosphere. Aone was heavy but strong, and together they got him off of the floor just in time for the spilled cat food to disappear. Two people was probably not enough to do this job, but Hinata couldn’t find it in himself to regret his decision. The kennels were clean and outfitted with all the amenities, and he’d seen something more beautiful than he ever could have expected. 

“Now we just have to put them back in,” he whispered. Aone nodded again, still slightly smiling, and it felt so, so good to be the cause of that smile.

“You know, um,” Hinata started, twisting his hands into his apron. Aone tilted his head slightly, questioningly, and Hinata stumbled over his next words so hard he almost ended up on the floor too. “We- have to close soon- but, um- if- that is to say, if you want, I mean, it’s alright if you don’t, but- since you don’t have your own cat, we could- coffee- with me- you could...meet my cat? His name is Susan- He’s very friendly, um- and-I have cake? To- for the coffee- If you want-”

That perfect, tiny smile got a little bit bigger. 

“I’d love to.”

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr for more writing at fan5fics or my personal at ceilingfan5! I'm currently having a sale on commissions--$2 off every fic for the entire month of February! If you've got a rarepair like this and you're desperate to see your gay little dreams come true, hit me up!


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